compel
verb (used with object)
to force or drive, especially to a course of action.
were compelling
-
past progressiveof compel.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Yet it omits that the FDA also said it would entertain an accelerated approval based on a single-arm trial if the results were compelling, Replimune chair Philip Astley-Sparke tells us.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026
Even the ones that felt wrong in a way I didn’t have vocabulary for at the time — like Alison in “The Breakfast Club” and Iona in “Pretty In Pink” — were compelling.
From Salon ● Jan. 17, 2026
The results were compelling, demonstrating the strains' effectiveness in reducing body fat and rectifying the imbalances in intestinal microflora induced by obesity.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 29, 2024
But he added that the contents of the samples were "compelling evidence that animals there were probably infected with the virus".
From BBC ● Apr. 6, 2023
Although such interior exhibits were compelling, the earliest visitors to Jackson Park saw immediately that the fair’s greatest power lay in the strange gravity of the buildings themselves.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
